1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device, a method of controlling a light for shooting and a computer program product for a processing program thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an imaging device, a method of controlling a light for shooting and a computer program product for a processing program thereof mounted with a video light.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in an imaging device, for example, in a digital camera, there is a technology for turning ON a video light in dark shooting conditions and automatically turning it OFF in bright shooting conditions. In this field of technology, a technology has been developed for preventing the hunting phenomena in which the turning ON/OFF operations are quickly repeated by providing hysteresis (Japanese Laid-Open (Kokai) Patent Publication No. Heisei 06-14227).
However, even when hysteresis is provided for the turning ON/OFF operations, there is a problem as follows:
Even if a video light is turned ON in dark shooting conditions, the reflected light of the video light (light of video light which hits a subject and is bounced back) is incident to the image pickup element (e.g., CCD). As a result, there is a risk of repeating useless operations as follows: if the reflectance of the subject is high, the CPU misconstrues the shooting as bright because of the reflected light and accordingly turns OFF the video light. Next, when the video light is turned OFF, the CPU judges that the shooting condition is dark and turns ON the video light again.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problem, and the object of the present invention is to provide an imaging device, a method of controlling a light for shooting and a computer program product for a processing program thereof capable of automatically turning ON and OFF the video light appropriately depending on the shooting conditions.